Editing Foreign relations of Vietnam (section)

==Current issues==
[[File:Quân đội duyệt binh ở Trường Sa.JPG|thumb|230px|Vietnamese troops on [[Spratly Island]]]]
In 2011 the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam]], at the [[11th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam]], released an official statement about Vietnam's foreign policy and a section of the statement stated: "Vietnam is a friend and reliable partner of all countries in the international community, actively taking part in international and regional cooperation processes. Deepen, stabilize and sustain established international relations. Develop relations with countries and territories in the world, as well as international organizations, while showing: respect for each other's independence; sovereignty and territorial integrity; non-interference in each other's international affairs; non-use or threat of force; settlement of disagreements and disputes by means of peaceful negotiations; mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit."<ref>{{cite web |date=11 May 2012 |title=Viet Nam Foreign Policy |url=http://www.mofa.gov.vn/en/cs_doingoai/ |access-date=31 July 2013 |work=Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs |publisher=Press and Information Department – Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs}}</ref>

While Vietnam has remained relatively conflict-free since its Cambodia days, tensions have arisen in the past between Vietnam and its neighbors, especially in the case of China since both nations assert claims to the [[Spratly Islands|Spratly]] and [[Paracel Islands]] - the two archipelagos in a potentially oil-rich area of the [[South China Sea]]. Conflicting claims have produced over the years small scale armed altercations in the area. In 1988, more than 70 Vietnamese troops were killed during a confrontation with Chinese forces, when China occupied several islands under Vietnamese control in the Spratly Islands. China's assertion of control over the Spratly Islands and the entire South China Sea has elicited concern from Vietnam and its Southeast Asia neighbors. The territorial border between the two countries is being definitively mapped pursuant to a Land Border Agreement signed in December 1999, and an Agreement on Borders in the Gulf of Tonkin signed in December 2000. Vietnam and Russia declared a strategic partnership in March 2001 during the first visit ever to Hanoi of a Russian head of state, largely as an attempt to counterbalance China's growing profile in Southeast Asia.

'''Disputes – international:''' [[maritime boundary]] with [[Cambodia]] not defined; involved in a complex dispute over the [[Spratly Islands|Spratly -]] [[Paracel Islands]] with the People's Republic of China (PRC), [[Malaysia]], [[Philippines]], and possibly [[Brunei]]; maritime boundary with [[Thailand]] resolved in August 1997; maritime boundary dispute with the PRC in the [[Gulf of Tonkin]] resolved in 2000; Paracel Islands occupied by the PRC since 1974; offshore islands and sections of boundary with Cambodia are in dispute; agreement on land border with the People's Republic of China was signed in December 1999.

'''Illicit drugs:''' minor producer of opium poppy with 21&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> cultivated in 1999, capable of producing 11 metric tons of opium; probably minor transit point for Southeast Asian heroin destined for the US and Europe; growing opium/heroin addiction; possible small-scale heroin production